Mountain boy picks stars

1

Huang Xiaoxing's hometown is Huangjia Village, nestled in the rolling mountains along the Yellow River. The village is scattered across the hillsides with its gullies and ridges.

The irregularly shaped plots of land on the hillsides of my hometown are extremely barren, unsuitable for growing staple crops like wheat and corn. Only coarse grains such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and pumpkins can be grown. Furthermore, the area suffers from chronic drought, resulting in poor harvests and widespread hunger. With a large population and limited land, survival is incredibly difficult. Many people in my hometown are forced to leave year-round to work and earn a living hundreds of miles away.

Shanwa's parents also went to work in a city in the south with other villagers. They had no choice but to leave Shanwa in their hometown to live with his grandparents, making him a true "left-behind child".

My parents originally wanted to go out to work together, but because a fellow villager introduced me to a clothing factory that only hired female workers, my mother was able to find a job.

Shanwa's father had no choice but to follow his fellow villagers' construction teams and work on construction sites in different cities.

Like many other migrant workers, my parents work in the city but don't enjoy the holiday benefits that city employees receive. They earn money for each day's work and can only come home once a year, during the Spring Festival.

Unexpectedly, after her mother went to work in another place, she never returned.

To this day, Shanwa still vividly remembers how his mother stayed up most of the night before leaving home, working under the kerosene lamp. She painstakingly sewed together scraps of cloth, stitch by stitch, to make him a floral-patterned coarse cloth schoolbag that was very popular at the time.

The next day, before leaving, Mom packed two fairy tale books in the schoolbag and gave them to him. She said solemnly, "Shanwa, study hard. When Mom comes back, I'll buy you a backpack like the ones for city kids."

Shanwa looked incredibly proud as he slung the handmade backpack, which embodied his mother's deep love, across his shoulder.

He secretly resolved to study hard at school and strive to get a perfect score of 100 to make his mother happy.

But once Mom left, she never came back.

There are many different rumors in the village about Shanwa's mother's disappearance. Some say it's because the Huang family was too poor, and his mother was tricked and abducted by a rich man.

Some people say that Shanwa's mother was kidnapped by a human trafficking gang and sold to a more remote area, where she was locked in a dark room every day and could not get out.

Some even claim that Shanwa's mother was lured abroad by a fraud ring and had her kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, corneas, and other organs harvested and sold by criminal gangs and terrorists, and that she is long dead.

The young boy, Shanwa, a poor child from a mountain village, was always heartbroken whenever he heard the villagers talking about his mother's various misfortunes.

He deeply hated those bad people who had harmed his mother, and he longed to spread his arms and grow wings to fly to every corner of the country, even to every mountain, every valley, and every village in the world, to find his mother!

However, faced with the towering mountains before him and hearing the roaring Yellow River, Shanwa stretched out his hands, waving them with all his might, desperately and incessantly. But unlike in the movies, he couldn't be magically transformed, his feet leaping endlessly, yet he simply couldn't fly.

Deep down, Shanwa still harbors the naive fantasy that his mother is still alive and missing him.

2

But as they waited and waited, year after year passed, and Mom still didn't come back.

The villagers had all sorts of rumors, and some busybodies even added fuel to the fire by mocking him.

When Huang Xiaoxing was a child in the village, people called him by his childhood nickname, "Shanwa".

When busybodies saw Shanwa, they would always say to him, whether intentionally or unintentionally:

"Shanwa, your mother ran off with someone else a long time ago because she thought your family was too poor..."

"Shanwa, your mother has been kidnapped by human traffickers..."

"Shanwa, your mother went abroad to enjoy a life of luxury, and she'll never come back..."

Every time he heard these things, Shanwa would hide in the mountains and cry. He didn't believe his mother would abandon him, just as he didn't believe that his mother's saying "the stars in the sky correspond to people on earth" was false.

Once, Shanwa saw a shooting star streak across the night sky and was so frightened that he cried out. He thought his mother's star had fallen and ran home to hug his grandmother, crying, "Is my mother gone?"

Grandma hugged him, wiped away his tears, and comforted him, saying, "Silly child, shooting stars are just stars on their way. Your mother's star is still shining in the sky."

From then on, Shanwa would go to the hilltop at the entrance of the village every night, sit on the oval-shaped brown rock, look up at the starry sky, and miss his mother who had been away for a long time.

At the foot of the mountain flows the mighty Yellow River, its roar echoing throughout the night.

The stars in the sky were like scattered gold dust, illuminating the entire night.

But which star in the night sky is the "Mom Star" that I think about day and night?

When will the mother, who misses her son Shanwa so much, be able to return to his side?

Sitting on an oval-shaped brown rock, Shanwa clutched the strap of his floral-patterned coarse cloth schoolbag, sewn by his mother, and gazed up at the starry sky. Tears welled in his eyes as he whispered to the stars, "Mom, I got 80 points on my test today. Although I didn't get 100, the teacher praised me and said I've made progress."

"Mom, this morning I helped Grandma feed the pigs, and tonight I helped Grandpa drive the cattle back from plowing the fields behind the mountain, carrying the oxen's yoke. Grandma said I've grown up, and Grandpa said I'm sensible..."

"Mom, on my way home from school today, I helped Grandpa Li push his cart up the hill. It was piled high with corn stalks, like a little mountain. He was so focused on pulling the cart that he didn't see me pushing hard from behind. Even though Grandpa Li didn't praise me, I was still happy!"

"Mom, the persimmon tree in our yard is laden with red persimmons. The whole tree looks like it's covered in little lanterns, and at night they're like little stars. I so wish that one of those persimmon stars on our persimmon tree is Mommy Star!"

"I've grown taller again. The pants you sewed for me last time are showing my ankles now. It's getting colder and colder, and my exposed ankles are getting cold too. Mom, are you cold over there? When are you coming back? Mom, my dear Mom, Shanwa misses you day and night..."

But the starry sky was silent, wild and still.

Only the ceaseless roar of the Yellow River flowing at the foot of the mountain echoes from afar.

3

Once, Shanwa was carrying a floral-patterned coarse cloth schoolbag that his mother had sewn by hand. It was already dark when he returned to the entrance of his village from the neighboring village school.

At that time, many villagers went out to work, and some children followed their parents. The number of students in the village decreased. The village primary school had to close down, and the village children had to go to school in neighboring villages.

Shanwa passed by the village store and saw the store owner making a video call to a child outside.

Back then, mobile phone video calls were a novelty. Not only could you make calls, but you could also hear the other person's voice. Shanwa was deeply fascinated by that amazing video phone.

There was no telephone or mobile phone at his home.

He so desperately wanted to borrow someone's phone to video chat with his mother, even for just a minute.

At that time, only the family who ran the small shop at the edge of the village had a mobile phone. Since Shanwa often went deep into the mountains to collect wild herbs, he frequently came to this small shop, which also served as a yam collection point, and the shop owner was familiar with him. The owner kindly lent him the phone so he could video call his mother.

I tried calling the phone number my mother had left at the convenience store before, but I couldn't get through. This time, I actually got through.

In the video, my mother said that she was working the night shift at the garment factory and had just cut her finger on a sewing machine needle.

Shanwa clearly saw in the video that his mother's bandaged finger was still dripping blood, and he was heartbroken. He kept shouting into the phone, "Mommy, Mommy, your finger is still bleeding! Go to the hospital quickly!"

But Mom said on the phone, "No, that would mean they'd deduct your wages."

Shanwa looked at the phone screen and asked again, "Mom, why haven't you come back for so long?"

My mother, with tears streaming down her face, said on the phone, "Shanwa, my fellow villagers and I first worked in a shoe factory, but we contracted a strange disease from the paint used to polish the shoes. My limbs were weak, and I kept having convulsions. The boss didn't care about us and fired us. I've worked in brick factories, construction sites, and chicken slaughterhouses. But the meager wages I earned left me with no money to take home after paying for medicine. I'll go back as soon as I earn some money."

Shanwa stared at the phone screen, sobbing sadly. Despite his young age, he was very sensible and comforted his mother, "Mom, I'm good at saving money. I can even go up the mountain to dig up medicinal herbs to sell. Mom, please come back soon. Shanwa won't spend Mom's money; I can even go up the mountain to dig up herbs to earn money for Mom..."

However, on the other end of the phone, I could clearly hear someone scolding and reprimanding my mother for wasting overtime hours, saying that if she didn't go back to her workstation to work overtime, her wages would be deducted.

On the other end of the phone, tears streaming down her face, her mother left only her last words: "Shanwa, listen to your grandparents at home, and listen to your teachers at school. I'll come back as soon as I've earned some money!"

The call was abruptly disconnected. The entire conversation lasted less than three minutes.

Shanwa Nan still vividly remembers her mother's haggard face on the screen.

He longed to say to his mother again, "Mom, I'm going to fly up to the sky and pluck the stars from the sky, so that you'll never leave me again."

The screen seemed to light up again the instant I returned the phone to the shopkeeper.

Shanwa seemed to hear his mother crying on the other end of the screen, and he could hear her sobbing in his ears: "Shanwa, eat well and study hard. When you grow up and become capable, maybe you can fly up to the sky and pluck that star that is your mother from the sky..."

But from then on, I could no longer get through to my mother on the phone.

Dad inquired everywhere but couldn't find any information. Later, he went out to look for it several more times, but still couldn't find it.

Shanwa still went to the mountaintop to look at the stars every day, but he never talked to the stars again—he was afraid the stars would tell him that his mother's star had really fallen.